Cigarette smoking is the single most preventable cause of premature death in the United States. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking. In fact, one in every five deaths in the United States is smoking related. Every year, smoking kills more than 276,000 men and 142,000 women.(1)

About 10 million people in the United States have died from causes attributed to smoking (including heart disease, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases) since the first Surgeon General's report on smoking and health in 1964--2 million of these deaths were the result of lung cancer alone.(2)

Between 1960 and 1990, deaths from lung cancer among women have increased by more than 400%--exceeding breast cancer deaths in the mid-1980s.(3) The American Cancer Society estimated that in 1994, 64,300 women died from lung cancer and 44,300 died from breast cancer.(4)

Men who smoke increase their risk of death from lung cancer by more than 22 times and from bronchitis and emphysema by nearly 10 times. Women who smoke increase their risk of dying from lung cancer by nearly 12 times and the risk of dying from bronchitis and emphysema by more than 10 times. Smoking triples the risk of dying from heart disease among middle-aged men and women.(1)

Every year in the United States, premature deaths from smoking rob more than five million years from the potential lifespan of those who have died.(1)

On average, smokers die nearly seven years earlier than nonsmokers.(2)

Annually, exposure to secondhand smoke (or environmental tobacco smoke) causes an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer among American adults.(5) Scientific studies also link secondhand smoke with heart disease.